Oblong folio, 24 x 30 cm, full calf binding.  The manuscript is notated in a pre-ruled music book produced by the firm of Henry Holland, Nephew and Successor to Mr Pyke organ builder to his Majesty at his manufactorys Bedford Row and St James Street, Piccadilly.  Holland's firm traded at these two addresses between c.1786 and January 1789.  The inside front cover includes a 20th-century printed paper label "Jane Austen's House/ Chawton Hampshire."  The title page features the publisher's green ornamental border with a blank centre for purchasers to fill in; this has been inscribed in ink, "Songs and Duetts," and there are signs that further words have been erased.  The verso of the title page includes a manuscript index to the contents.

The manuscript consists of vocal music (solo and ensemble), mainly with keyboard accompaniment.  The repertoire appears in printed publications from c.1790 to c.1805, suggesting that the manuscript was copied from the early to mid-1790s onward. The hand for both the contents and the manuscript index is the same as the principal hand of CHWJA/19/2, which has been securely identified as belonging to Jane Austen.

A full bibliographic record is available from the University of Southampton Library catalogue.

Ownership and current location:  Jane Austen's House Museum CIO, on deposit at the Hampshire Record Office, Winchester, UK.

Literature:  Piggott 1979; Gillaspie c.1990; Gammie and McCulloch 1996; Carrasco 2013.